Monday

Today we are all getting over having visitors for 4 weeks.  Though it has been a fun time, and we enjoyed their company it has been company!  Every afternoon we have had 11 kids playing happily together!

 

We started our Monday with a “Conference”.  This is something that I would like to happen more regularly with the intent of helping Josh and Jess set and achieve goals for the coming week.  This week though I spoke to all four of them though it was mainly for Josh and Jess’ benefit.  We discussed removing the time from our learning slots and just working from a “to-do” list.

 

Both Josh and Jess loved this idea and immediately thought of themselves as being motivated to start and finish their work without me, and to organise their day’s studies for themselves.

 

I also put to them the 3 goals or Time priorities (as Chris Davis has it in his book/CD’s) of Relationship, Practical skills and Academic.  I asked which of these priorities did our conference fall into and I was pleased to hear that they both thought it was Relationship!  Six months ago they would have said academic I am sure.

 

Josh and Daniel had to go down and check the huge amount of water lying around a channel crossing on the farm.  This was a good opportunity on a few fronts.  I asked Josh how he would be able to tell if the drain was blocked or just water in excess.  He gave me a few answers.  I encouraged him, as they walked out the door, to use the time to help Daniel understand the problem and the solution.  It was just an excess of water as we have had huge storms, huge rain drops the last few nights.

 

We couldn’t pass the first day by without writing a letter to our friends – who have just left!  So to the Post Office we go tomorrow!

 

Josh, Jess and Nomi spent about 1 ½ hour reading their Reading List books, and Note booking this afternoon.

 

 

 

Tuesday

Today we visited, with a few others from our church, the Aged Care Home in town.  This is a new facility and the group is just getting itself organised to bless these people.  Nomi and Jessica prepared a song to sing – unaccompanied.  They chose a Colin Buchanan song.  Josh went along to talk to people!  They all did very well – The song came across very well, Josh circulated and spoke to a few people and Jess sat for a long time holding the hand of a very very old lady (who you couldn’t understand even if she did talk to you).  I was very proud of Josh and Jess for mixing and accepting these people as they did. 

 

After our hour there we did chores around town and then went to the Pool.  It was good to get the kids back into the water after our little holiday and time of lots of swimming.

 

Then it was to the library.

Joshua’s focus was on Tolkien books and audiotapes.

Jessica chose Little Women to read again (I think she read it when she was too young the first time – it slipped in somehow!)

Nomi was happy with the Pony Pal books we have at home thanks to our friends who have lent us a very big pile!

Daniel chose a Tintin comic book – which he was happy to declare later in the afternoon that he “read” all of it!  But while at the library he also asked for Jungle books so I found several along this theme.

 

Our later afternoon has been spent playing a new computer game (Theme Park Tycoon), reading our books, playing with the dog and watching Peter Pan!  Jess has helped with getting a very quick dinner together.

 

 

Wednesday

We started our lessons on Honour today.  It was very timely and everyone’s attitude certainly gave us real material to work with!  But their hearts are in the right place and a little discussion soon had everyone changing their hearts and changing their actions!

 

Our discussion on Honour dealt with the whole area of Relationships.  But then some academic topics came in at the end.  We had a science experiment and the children all made a poster.  I had previously asked them to define honour in their words (Listening/Speaking).  This was their topic for their poster. We pulled out our Writing Manuals and learnt a little about posters (Research / Writing).   Now that all the posters are finished we have a collection of Honour Posters for our wall.

 

Josh started his Grammar unit, did a few lessons with is Writing Strands, and a lesson with Math.

Jess worked on her math & piano practice

Nomi did her LLATL, which was learning cursive, which she was very excited about! and a Notebook page to mark her reading the Pony Pal books.  (Art)

Daniel did some language skills on the computer

 

Daniel worked with his metal construction kit  – he tried to connect a wire from the metal car to the power point!  Thankfully he asked me first.  I of course said, NO!!!!  So we had a little lesson on power points.  He then got a battery from the drawer, used masking tape to attach it to the car and tried that.  I told him it wouldn’t work, but he had to discover it for himself.  I wasn’t very focused on him at this stage as I guess I should have sat down with him and helped him discover that without my little lecture!  But he did discover it.  So we had a little discussion about the battery giving power to a motor and the motor having to be attached to the wheels to make them go around.  So I guess it is off to the electronics shops somewhere and buy him a little motor kit! 

 

The kids played some Math focus games together this afternoon.  Josh and Jess played Battleships, Nomi and Daniel played Ludo and they all played a round or two of UNO.

 

Dishwasher has died so everyone has had a turn at having to work in the kitchen without a dishwasher – this is more of an attitude activity rather than the skill itself!